Falling on Solid Ground

Finally, it’s spring.  Everybody who has been slammed with winter is SO excited for the warm weather and ground thawing out.  I have to say, while I’m excited to get this snow off the ground and see temperatures above 35 degrees, I have a little problem with the first few weeks of spring.

Every year, spring comes around, I get back to riding, and… I land on my head.  I fall off of horses.  One year, it was the world’s most docile school pony.  I didn’t exactly heed his owner’s  warning of “don’t jump until the pony jumps!” and a long spot tossed me right out of the tack and onto my head.  Helmet: shattered.

Just a short time later, it was my own giant Percheron, who fell with me while trying to figure out where his feet were supposed to go, after having time off all winter.  Helmet: shattered.

I’m most proud of the time I stayed on a bolting eventer for most of a mile before he ducked to one side and I kept going straight.  That horse just won a big CIC***, I’ve stuck to riding more horses like the aforementioned school pony. Anyway, helmet: shattered.

To put it lightly, my springtime habits make me sore.  The ground isn’t quite soft like in summer, but in everyone’s rush to get out of our houses and onto our horses, we don’t think about how the half-thawed ground is actually half-frozen as well!  And landing on it – especially the way that I tend to – hurts.  I have so many recurring aches and pains from my history of coming off of horses – after JR, it was my wrist.  After Gali, it was my neck and my knees.  After Jackson, it was pretty much every part of my body.  Hitting the ground from 35 mph tends to shake up MOST of your bones.

Before I discovered Draper, my first aid closet (closet – not kit.  Can you tell I’m accident prone?) was overflowing with remedies.  Pain relievers, heat packs, cold packs, linimints, anti-inflammatories, joint braces, ace bandages… it was all so disorganized and messy.  When I tried my first Draper product – the wrist support, after *nothing* else worked for me – I was hooked.  For the first time, I didn’t have to keep my wrist wrapped overnight every night.  After using the Draper support for a few days, I felt relief, and now I use it whenever I get tight – the relief and looseness that I get from the support lasts for days.  I also wear it when I go to yoga, and it’s helped tremendously in my ability to use my wrist again in various poses.

Now, my first aid closet can stay a lot more organized.  The shoulder wrap can replace my hot and cold packs, as it doubles as both.  The therapeutic body wrap is WAY better than all of my ace bandages, as it reduces swelling and provides increased circulation that can really be felt, so whatever I’m wrapping up can heal quickly enough for me to not miss a ride!  The therapeutic knee brace is the best of it’s kind – supportive, open-patella, and helps keep those damaged tendons and ligaments loose and pain free!

So, as I gear up for my next round of “spring falls” at least this time I can bounce back up and hop back on, knowing that my therapeutic neck wrap is ready for me at home, along with a hot cup of tea and the omnipresent thought that maybe, just maybe, I should take up tennis.

Guest blog this week written by Kim Magaraci, who would never dream of hanging up her stirrups for a tennis racket, and not just because she’s got terrible hand-eye coordination.  Thanks to Dominika Nawrot for letting us use her photo of Kim and JR.